Campfire
by antisocial hottie
Summary: The next mission from Tanjiro's party is going to the peak of Lillium Montain to celebrate the Lillium Dance, an event for Demon Slayers where they can rest from one night and dance around a bonfire. Will they be succesful at finding a person to dance with? [InoTan/ZenUko] [One Shot]


"Guys! Guys!" the three of them looked up to the sky when Tanjiro's crow approached to them with the intention of saying something.

"No way, another mission?" Zenitsu's expression changed to a tired one. "I'm too tired! I can't handle another one!"

"Let him speak, Zenitsu." Tanjiro offered his arm to the bird, and the kasugaigarasu alighted on it. "Where do we have to go now?"

"The north! The north! To the peak of the Lilium Montain!"

"Eh? But that's close..." the gentle boy turned around to take a look to the already visible destination.

"Great! We will fight against more demons?!" asked Inosuke vigorously.

"Not this time! It's a campfire, a campfire! The Lillium Dance!" explained the messenger. "Tonight! For Demon Slayers!"

"A dance?" Kamado wanted to ask his crow more about it, but after communicating the message to his owner he leaved them and flew to another part. "The Lillium Dance... Oh, I think I know what is it!"

"You know? I never heard about anything like that." Agatsuma raised an eyebrow, pretty confused with the mentioned names.

"Me neither, if it weren't because Makomo mentioned it to me one day."

"Makomo?! Who's she?!"

"If I don't remember wrong, the Lillium Dance is a festive night where Demon Slayers can take a little rest from their tasks." Tanjiro ignored Zenitsu's spirited question and got to the point with the explanation. "There's a campfire, and you have the chance to invite another person to dance with you."

"That's bullshit!" yelled Inosuke. "I wanted to fight more!"

"You always think about the same things! You don't understand?! Tanjiro said that you can dance with a girl tonight and all you're thinking about is fightning!"

"Well, it doesn't have to be a girl." clarified a mousy Kamado. "Makomo said that the dance doesn't have to be under a romantic context. A lot of boys and girls dance along with persons of their own genr-"

"Whathever, you can dance with a GIRL!" shouted Zenitsu with too much excitement. "Aren't you eager?!"

The two boys exchanged a silent gaze. Hashibira moved slightly his wild boar mask as if he wanted to say something, but his travel partner got ahead of him with the answer.

"Not much, if I'm honest." Tanjiro smiled sweetly. "But we can rest! That's already great."

Inosuke turned around, and both Kamado and Agatsuma looked at him.

"Tsk, I wanted to fight more." he started to walk. "Let's go, I don't want to lose more time."

"Inosuke, even if we arrive sooner to the peak, the night won't end before." commented Tanjiro as he followed him.

"I know, I'm not stupid! But still, I don't want to be here without doing anything!"

The party arrived to the summit of the Lillium Montain just in time for the dawn, along with more Demon Slayers to came, like them, to celebrate and have a good time.

"The atmosphere is really great, isn't it?" while Zenitsu was looking for girls and Inosuke had his arms crossed, Tanjiro was actually contemplating astonished the whole place. "And demons can't come here because of the glicines. It's a perfect place to celebrate!"

"Yeah, but what if something bad happens in another place?!" questioned Hashibira with an angry voice.

"There are plenty of Demon Slayers, it's obvious that the ones who are here are a minority." explained Kamado serenely. "I also doubt that all the Pilars will be here. I don't think they can abandon their responsabilities even for tonight."

"Wild boar, you are more annoyed than the usual today. Is everything okay under that mask?"

"IT IS! You don't care about me, weakling crybaby!"

"Hey, that's cruel! And low your voice! I don't want you to scare any girl who wants to invite me for a dance."

"That's your problem, dammit! And no one would want to dance with you!" he panted bothered. "Anyway, I'm going to eat something."

"W-wait, Inosuke!" Tanjiro tried to stop him, but Zenitsu grabbed his arm.

"Tanjiroooo!" he was already at the edge of tears. "He's not right, isn't he?! Girls will want to dance with me, won't they?!"

"I don't have any idea!" he sighed as he pushed aside Agatsuma's hand. "Anyways, I don't want Inosuke to give problems to anyone, so I'm going to follow him now."

Just as he finished saying that sentence, the trunks for the campfire started burning, creating impressives and scintillianting flames which stole the attention of the entire place; everyone stared inmediately at them, open-mouthed and impressed by the reddish lightning that the fire gave to the forest. The atmosphere really was somehow romantic.

"It started!" Zenitsu panicked. "It started! The girls will come to me! Tanjiro, I'm going to need your help!"

He didn't listen to the blonde and started to take down the portable house of his sister.

"Sorry, Zenitsu, but can you take care of the box?" and, of course, he ignored again the reclaims of his friend.

"What?! B-but Nezuko...!"

Before he could even refuse to do it, Tanjiro started to walk away without the box.

"She's asleep, so it's fine! You just have to keep an eye of it and check that it doesn't dissappear!"

"But she's your sister! Why do I have to do the dirty job?!"

He never received a reply. But well, even if he was externally bothered by the sudden asigned job, taking care of Nezuko wasn't a bad idea. Rather the opposite.

Even if she was asleep inside the closed box and he wasn't able to see her, it was fine for him. A cute girl was a cute girl always.

"Now I just have to wait for a cute Demon Slayer to approach to me." he sighed haughty and presumptuos as he leaned his elbow on the top of the box. "This night's going to be fun... Or so I wish."

"Inosuke!"

Kamado found his partner in a place more secluded to the campfire, eating furiously two onigiris at the same time. The good thing is that he didn't seemed to had have enough time to cause any problems due to his wild attitude. But the negative...

"Monjiro."

"C'mon, my name's Tanjiro." he sighed. "I was worried about you! You shouldn't go away from me and Zenitsu that quickly on a place like this."

"I was hungry!" he said with his mouth full.

"But still... There's no need to flee from us like that." he approached a little more to his friend and smelled the remaining onigiri on his hand. "Whoa, the food seems delicious. It is good?"

"Huh?! I-I don't know." he put the entire ball of rice on his mouth and bitted it quickly. "Pitifully there's no more left, so I can't give you a bit to taste it!"

"Haha, I guess you can't."

Inosuke got even more mad when he saw the gently smile on Tanjiro's face. How was it possible? Why that boy _never_ succumbed at his tauntings? Why was he always so kind? _Why it felt so stupidly warm and soft... Whenever he was with him?_

He didn't understand that unknown feeling, and couldn't help but tight his jaw to restrain an annoyed roar. Unknown things made him feel uncomfortable, and that was precisely how he was feeling whenever he was around Tanjiro: but at the same time, he also had a somehow pleasant ticklish on his stomach... And that calid sensation that hugged his heart whenever he listened to his friendly voice and saw his kind smile. It made him want to get closer to Kamado, but how? He didn't know any other way apart from fightning, but Tanjiro didn't seem to enjoy it.

_Then which option had he left?_

"The campfire already started, and I left Zenitsu behind. You wanna come to see it?" he offered his hand to Hashibira, who replied giving him his shoulder.

"I want to keep eating."

"I'm sure they will give food as well around the campfire. In fact, that's where everyone is, so it's obvious they would." Tanjiro tried to insist, but Inosuke rejected his gestures. "What's wrong with you today? You're more weird than the usual!"

"I don't want to see people dancing!" annoyed by the somehow a bit hurting comments from Kamado, Hashibira yelled the answer as his cheeks burned a bit, even though he didn't know the reason of why. "It's a strange and useless thing! Weird behaviour! I don't want to see it! I don't think I will feel good seeing it..."

His eyes looked down, but even like that he could see sideways an affable smile on Tanjiro's face.

"I see. So that's what was worrying you."

"Nothing worries me!" _what was that thing he was feeling? Why was he feeling his heartbeats with so much power and why his face was more hot than the usual? He even felt as if he was losing the control of his thoughts and words..._ "I'm perfectly fine! I need more food!"

"Hey, you know? Dancing is not a weird thing like you think it is."

"Okay, I don't care!"

"People have fun doing it. They interact with others and boost the bonds they share with their loved ones."

"...People have fun?"

"Yeah, they do! I hardly ever have danced, but when I lived with my family Nezuko used to be my pair. We enjoyed it a lot even if we weren't really good at it." he scratched his neck as a clumsy grin appeared on his lips. "Maybe it would be good for you watching. You always think about fightning and becoming stronger, but life has a plenty of other things you can do."

"But I don't want to watch."

"Yeah, but you can't spend the entire night eating! It will be bad for your belly."

"That's not what I mean, Gonpachiro. I don't want to see that dumb doing weird things!"

"Who, Zenitsu? You don't have to look at him! There are more people!"

"And who I have to see then?! You?!"

"Me?! W-well, I don't know if anyone would want to dance with me!"

"I see."

Inosuke turned around, secretly ashamed and diving into a sea of confusion and twisted feelings. However, under that animal mask that covered all his face, Tanjiro was unable to see his expresion.

"Are you still against the idea of watching?" he asked with a smooth pitch, still treating Hashibira with kindness despite the harsh treatment he always received from him. "Maybe you're confused because you don't really know what is it."

"I know what a dance is, but I never heard before about two people doing it." he groaned.

"I can show you." Kamado grabbed his wrist and tried to make him walk alongside him, but Inosuke rejected him. "Inosuke!"

"I didn't want to come here to see you dancing!" the feral boy yelled vehemently, and Tanjiro blinked twice. "You're so slow-minded! React already, stupid idiot!"

"Stupid idiot..." Kamado sighed. "I think I understand what's going on inside your mind now. I should have noticed before."

"Ha?! And what is it then, arrogant know-it-all?!"

Tanjiro smiled and holded both Inosuke's hands between his.

"You _actually_ want to dance." he said. "And if I'm not wrong, with me."

"W-WHAT?! No, not at all!" his screams sounded louder than before. "I don't even know how to do it!"

"You don't have to be embarrased about that! Everyone has they first time."

Kamado tried to drag Hashibira with him to the campfire, but the second refused the idea and tried to resist.

"Tontaro, I don't want to go there...!"

"Why not?" he stopped and looked concerned at the guy. "The fire scares you?"

"Hell, no! It's because there's more people! And Zenitsu is there too!" he looked down and fixed his feets on the floor: the heat augmented as he became more conscious about Tanjiro's fingers _touching_ his skin. Even so... He accepted it. "I don't want them to look at me doing something I don't know how to!"

Hashibira felt miserable. He was going crazy with the whole dancing situation, and he hated the idea of abandoning his pride and act like a vulnerable puppy: where was his strenght? Was Kamado going to hate that pathetic side of him? But he really didn't want the others to see him dancing...

"Oh... I see. I understand." surprisingly, Tanjiro's voice sounded as normal as before. "But there's almost no people around us right now, isn't it? Are you okay if I teach you how to do it here?"

"Here?" Inosuke looked around them: his partner was right, there were practically alone if it weren't for a couple of people who wanted to take a rest from the campfire. "Hm... I guess it's a right place..."

_Seriously, what was that thing he was feeling? It was as killer as a wound and warm as a caress._

"Okay! But I have to request you something if we're going to dance here." his grin was hiding second intentions. "Can you take out your mask?"

"Why do I have to do that?"

"Because I want to see your face!"

"Why?!" he suddenly reminded the time Tanjiro said he was cute, but quickly moved away that useless memory from his head.

"I don't have a reason at all! Just do it!"

"Tsk, you can be such a bossy when you get in the mood." he complained under his breath as he obeyed Kamado's request, removing his mask and showing off his beautiful, feminine and almost angelic features. "You happy now?"

Tanjiro seemed to blush slightly after seeing him, and then nodded excited. With his long, blue and blackish hair, his big green eyes, his long eyelashes and his pale skin all exposed, Kamado felt more closer to his partner, being able to grab again his wrist and trying to get started with the dance.

"Let's see... Makomo showed to me the position. We have to interlace the fingers of my right hand and your left hand... And with the other one one of us have to touch the shoulder of the another, and the other the hips."

"T-the hips?" Inosuke seemed already completely lost. "Why do we have to touch each other that much?!"

"I don't know, Inosuke, I didn't invent this posture. But we have to dance together, so we can't avoid physical contact." explained Tanjiro. "What do you prefer? Touching my shoulder or my h-?"

"The shoulder!" he squeezed his fingers on Kamado's shoulder, to the point of hurting him.

"A-auch! Be careful, please!" the boy laughed. "You don't need to be that brute now, we're not fightning."

"I know! Don't tell me what to do!"

"But you're a novice with dancing!"

"I won't be one once I dance with you for one minute!" he reasoned angrily.

"_One minute?_ That's all the time you allow me to enjoy with you?"

Once again, the voice of Nezuko's brother sounded too gentle for Inosuke, _far more gentle than what he expected_. No matter how did he taunt him, he still treated him that confusing way which bothered him so much. But he liked it too.

_He liked it._

Tanjiro placed his hand on Hashibira's naked waist, feeling the hard but soft touch of his pale skin. The redhead Demon Slayer took the liberty to take a closer look at the body of his partner, admiring his strong constitution and how smooth his white skin looked.

_"He's so tiny here even though he's so muscled... He has such a great body."_ he talked to himself as his face turned red. _"I should feel jealous, but instead of that..."_

"Stop looking at me." groaned Inosuke embarrased.

"Ah, I-I'm sorry."

_"Tsk, I can't believe I'm really doing this."_ thought the boy. _"I didn't know there were another ways to touch Tanjiro more than punching or fightning him... But now my heart is pounding even more than before. Why?"_

"Let's see... You have to follow my steps, okay? Let's go." he took a step backwards, and Hashibira did the same as his eyes looked nervously to Kamado's feets. "Okay, that's good, Inosuke! You learn fast."

"I know, shut up." he blushed a bit. _"It feels good when he says nice things to me..."_

"Okay, now we change the direction." they moved to the right, and Inosuke imitated his movements. "Now right... Great, great! You're doing good!"

"This is difficult." he mumbled.

"Yeah, at first it is, but when you get used to it it's really funny!" Kamado surprised Hashibira with a spin, making him turn around: the surprise on his eyes after he returned to the normal position was more than enough to make Tanjiro explode on a sweet guffaw. "Hahahaha!"

"W-what was that?!" he asked with his cheeks red.

"A spin!" he explained. "The one who is grabbing the waist of they partner has to do it. I wanted you to experiment it before we finish dancing."

After saying that, Kamado stopped moving and separed his fingers from Hashibira's body, who blinked confused. Tanjiro sighed with a small grin on his lips.

"I guess that's it." he said. "I hope you know now how dancing feels, Inosuke."

"Wait, why did you stop?" the wild boy wanted to know, so he asked his companion with a bewildered voice.

"Hm? Because you said just one minute. It already finished."

_"Already?! How?! It was too short!"_

"Zenitsu is probably waiting for me to return, so I'll go with him. Want to go with me now?"

"W-wait... Tanjiro." Hashibira grabbed Kamado's wrist to keep him from going away. "I liked dancing. Can we do it more? I want to..."

_'I want to do it with you.'_

"I want to practice until I become the best dancer!" he expressed loudly with a yeasty smile.

He was still afraid of his own incomprehensible and unmentionable feelings, but after dancing with him, he was starting to embrace the positive vibes it gave to him.

"Inosuke..." Tanjiro's eyes sparkled for a second, and then he nodded enthusiastic. "Of course!"

_"Damn, Tanjiro is sure taking his time. Half an hour and still without appearing by here."_ Zenitsu looked at the closed box with an unhappy expression, but quickly raised his gaze when a girl walked beside him. "Hey, you! Wanna dance?"

When she turned around to look at him, she frowned with a disgusted face and shook her head, rejecting him and following her path. The blond sighed disheartened, looking around him once again and seeing how almost everyone was already dancing with someone else. Why was he the only one alone? He even invited a lot of girls, but all of them rejected him... Was he really that ugly?

_"Nobody wants me."_ depressed, he sat on the grass, hugging his knees with the only company of an asleep demon inside a box. He muttered to himself at the edge of tears, trying to restrain the desire of crying. "Why do I have so much bad luck? I always scare girls away, even now when people is supossed to dance. Maybe I'm not really worth it."

He hided his face as he left a tear fall down his left cheek. Almost a minute passed, but then, he felt the cold touch of a hand caressing his face: surprised, he raised his head, finding the responsible person of his scare instantly.

"Ne... Nezuko?" he was shocked when he saw the face of Tanjiro's little sister looking at him so much closely with her pink, round and gentle eyes. "W-what are you doing?"

"Nhn." she nodded slightly as she kept stroking Agatsuma's cheek, following the wet trace of his tear with her fingertip. "Nhn..."

"...You're comforting me? I'm thankful, but you don't have to... No when I'm always bothering you." he looked away. "Even when I know you don't like me, I still try always to pursue you. Under your eyes I'm probably a nuisance."

"Nhn, nhn."

She shook her head as she standed up from the ground, offering her hand to the boy. He looked at her a bit puzzled, and then took a look to her fingers: they were small, slim and ashy, and her nails were as long as her eyelashes. He didn't care if she was a demon or not. He accepted her invitation.

Interlacing his fingers with Nezuko's, he got up and looked straight at her face.

"Nhn." she looked at the campfire and then returned her glance to Zenitsu's eyes. "Nhn."

"You want to dance with me?"

"Nhn!" she nodded.

"Oh... Nezuko..." his eyes teared up from emotion. "You're the best girl in the entire world!"

She didn't seem very convinced about that declaration, but still accepted it with a faint smile. Agatsuma helped her to be in the correct posture to start dancing, and once they were finished with that, they both started to move at the rythm of the atmosphere.

_"Tanjiro... I hope you never appear around here."_ said Zenitsu to himself. _"If he does he'll think that I forced his sister to dance with me! But it wasn't actually like that! Nezuko... Nezuko invited me!"_

The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to scream his victory.

_"At the end I'm dancing with the cutest girl around here! I wonder if those two fools got also someone to dance with. They're so indifferent toward love I really doubt they did..."_


End file.
